CoolHandLuke

If we don't trade Dempster, and then offer him the 1 year, 12.5 million dollar contract (or whatever it is that is needed to get draft pick compensation), does he accept that deal?

Can anyone cite some examples of trades in baseball where great prospects get thrown into a deal because the receiving team is willing to take on a lousy contract? I can't think of any. Pretty sure it happened when the Dodgers traded Carlos Santana for Casey Blake, although I don't think Santana was a super well established prospect at the time, but he was in the midst of a breakout season in high A. **Edit I need to learn how to read

**disclaimer** very little research went into the following statement I believe only two of those guys were acquired after Epstein was hired to be the GM (Papelbon and Pedroia).

Iowa commit. Also pitches, touches 93, sounds like he closed for Simeon. http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2012-03-30/sports/ct-spt-0331-prep-base-spotlight-20120331_1_radar-guns-simeon-coach-leroy-franklin-darius-day

485 in the BA 500 Drafted and unsigned twice already, committed to Auburn next year. http://siouxcityjournal.com/sports/baseball/college/article_5fde795e-7fe6-5c57-84e1-36c61bf0d34b.html

Autographed Midwest League all-star game program with Clayton Kershaw, Brett Anderson, Travis Snider, and Chris Valaika!

whew, I did not want Ingram.

A comment on minorleagueball.com indicated that Robert Whitenack was called up to Tennessee. I haven't seen it anywhere else, can anyone confirm?

Looks like Robert Whitenack is starting for Daytona.

Favorite teams are often determined in childhood and children are retards.

By that criterium, would not all empirical science be conjecture? If so, I think we simply use the word "conjecture" differently. In any case, I digress. I blame the shifting winds off the lake. It is. I guess the word "conjecture" might be too strong, but now we're arguing pointless semantics. Not that we had an argument of any substance before. Blaming shifting winds off the lake is one thing, but it's hard to believe that there are no shifting winds in other ballparks. Later today, if I have a chance, I will look into this. Honestly, it's probably not one thing. It's probably a combination of wind, day/night games, and other things. One would wonder if the effect existed if they restricted the data to pre WWII when most games were not played under the lights. I don't know much about statistics, but since all of the other teams do show a home field advantage by these numbers, couldn't the data for the Cubs just be an outlier, that has no other cause than randomness? I guess what I'm wondering is, does this study attempt to answer "does team X have a home field advantage", in which case it seems like there may not be a large enough sample size, or is it trying to find out whether or not a home field advantage exists period, in which case, the Cubs data point might just be a random outlier. My gut feeling is that if you are trying to determine if a specific park gives a team a home field advantage you need more data than 11 seasons provides. But I don't know anything.

I think the belt celebration is really trashy and douchey but, and maybe I'm totally wrong here, I think Rodgers knows that it is trashy and douchey and does it with goofiness in mind. If he is not self aware and does it totally sincerely then I hate it and wish he would stop. GO PACKERS!

I'm a fan of the Packers and I hate Eric. And I barely read any threads and I'm formulating my opinion on very little evidence. But I'm pretty sure I hate him.

I'm trying to figure out why your AFC picks are almost exactly like mine lol. But really I'm trying to figure out how one could win by 5 in an OT game. The only way I can see that happening is if the Packers kick a FG on their first possession of OT, then on the Falcons chance to possess the ball they get sacked in the end zone for a safety. Is that what you intended? Yes, because I thought it'd be funny. Plus, it's the only somewhat feasible way that a team could score twice in OT. Maybe I'm missing something, but couldn't both teams kick field goals on their first possessions and then the first team would just have to score in any way on the ensuing possession?

I really don't see it. It's a fine deal. Maybe even a good deal, but it's not a package that makes me drool over the guys included in it. I guess I just really question whether or not Escobar will hit, and while Cain hit last year, he hasn't exactly been mr. consistent in his minor league career.

Does it really seem like that big of a haul to you people?

I'm not a hockey fan and I know almost nothing about the sport but gosh darn it is fun to watch.

http://espn.go.com/espn/page2/index?id=5149845

Few other pitchers noted there include Anthony Reyes and Scott Olsen. Why are the two consecutive years of low HR/FB rates the year after his first full season the aberration and not the norm? Because this season when he was partially injured he regressed to his rookie year performance whgere he was merely mediocre as a reliever? Why wouldn't his following two seasons as a regular who had become adjusted to the MLB level who turned in great performances not be considered the norm? Just curious I'm a layman, to be sure, but I would guess that there are measures of a pitcher's performance (that aren't based on home runs allowed) that are indicative of how many home runs a pitcher should give up that were not in line with how many Capps gave up for those two years.

To me, the 2010 season is already over, so I want as much comedy as can be squeezed out of this team. Milton Bradley only serves to increase the hilarity quotient, so keep him aboard, I say!

oh holy crap

Darren Sharper is in that conversation. 7 INT's, 3 returned for TD in 9 games this year. Yeah, forgot about him as well. Woodson has 7 INT's now and a number of forced fumbles too. He is also allowing a lot of catches like he always has. He either gets the big INT or he gives up the catch because he always goes for the INT even when he has no chance. See his only 7 PD's and 44 solo tackles as evidence. He is having a good year but he isn't close to Allen or Sharper in the DPOY race at this point. Jonathan Joseph I would say is above him as well. He has 5 INT's (same as Woodson coming into week) and league leading 15 PD's for the surprise team of the year. How is 44 solo tackles evidence of that? And according to nfl.com Woodson has 18 pds to Joseph's 20. Woodson also has 2 sacks to JJ's 0 and 4 forced fumbles to JJ's 1. JJ may be a better pure cover corner, I don't know, but play makers win post season awards and Woodson has made more plays than JJ. To say Woodson isn't at least close to Sharper and Allen is ridiculous. edit: I noticed a discrepancy between Passes defensed listed on nfl.com and espn.com and I was a little confused, but went with nfl.com because I take that to be the official stats. I just figured out the difference is due to nfl.com counting interceptions as defensed passes. So Woodson has 11 non interception passes defensed and Joseph has 15 (one game behind). I'll still say that Woodson gets my extremely biased, layman vote for DPOY as of now.

Start 3: Vincent Jackson (duh) @NYG Mike Sims-Walker KC Miles Austin @PHI Hines Ward @DEN Leaning towards the first three

J. Knox @SEA E. Royal @OAK or Manningham @TAM ? D. Keller vs. TEN or B. Celek vs. KC ?

Need to start two of these guys: Ray Rice Mike Bell Julius Jones Darren McFadden Leon Washington Ahmad Bradshaw Eddie Royal